Donald Sensing reports this letter, quoted from the site Marine Corps Moms:
The Iraqis, as is their custom, set about drinking sodas, smoking cigarettes and talking in the loud and demonstrative tones they are accustomed to. Except for one spot. There was one spot in our chow hall where they would not smoke, they would not drink, they would not talk. There was one spot where all they would do is stand in silent reverence. That spot…our memorial table with the pictures of our heroic fallen. No, at this spot, they showed nothing but respect and honor! This was not something they were told to do, it was something that came natural to them.
Read the whole thing.
For some reason this reminded me of the speech written by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern Turkish state, that is now inscribed in stone at Gallipoli, where so many Australians fell during World War I:
These heroes’ blood flows over the soil of this new state of ours. Right here, you heroes dwell in a friendly homeland. So you rest here secure and calm. Beside the monuments to the Mehmets, rest all you Johnnies, in each others’ embrace. And all you mothers who sent their sons from so far away, wipe away your tears. Your sons now sleep so very secure and in peace. Once they gave their lives in this soil, they are our sons as well from now on.
Adapted from the Turkish and English texts in Ulug Igdemir, Ataturk ve Anzaclar (Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1978), pp. 4-6, 36-42.
There’s been a special relationship between the Turks and the Australians since this time. I wonder how the Iraqis will feel about the American soldiers who shed their blood and gave their lives on Iraqi soil and made it possible that the foundations of a new Iraqi state might be laid.
